53 people found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 16.9 hrs on record (12.7 hrs at review time)
Posted: Nov 29, 2019 @ 7:12am
Updated: Jan 26, 2020 @ 8:25am
Product received for free

Usually, I’m not into the sports theme, yet I found sports quite engaging in its own way as I absolutely love team spirit and tales of friends sticking together no matter what happens. I went in Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue without any real expectations and in the end, I found more joy in this game than I would have ever thought. It’s hard for me to put in words what made this visual novel that special to me but I guess it would be the message that as long as you never give up, you will claim higher and higher without any limits.

You can find the free 18+ patch[nekonyansoft.com] on NekoNyanSoft.

Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue takes place in a world where flying through the sky is something simple. This is only possible thanks to the discovery of special shoes, Anti-Graviton Shoes, which allows you to fly. It was a given that with this opportunity a new sport will soon be created which is called “Flying Circus” (FC) which uses the gravity shoes to players compete with each other. The protagonist, Masaya Hinata, was considered a prodigy until he quit FC due to a past trauma. When Asuka Kurashina moved to his home town, he soon decides to not only teach her how to fly but also join the school’s FC club and be her coach to guide her through FC. Therefore, he doesn’t make a comeback as a player but a coach.

First of all, I am impressed by the story-telling of Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue. Although there was a lot of information spread through the game, which was a given as “Flying Circus” doesn’t exists in reality, it never became boring or draggy to read through, but instead I was surprised that the writer gave so much thought into the small details that it felt like FC was something that would have possibly existed as well – if it wasn’t for the lack of shoes. That said, everything was well explained and mostly everything was very plausible although the whole sport is made up. All in all, I found the concept really interesting as you have different professions in this sport as well and although everyone finds their own fit playstyle, the goal is the same: scoring points.

Comedy moments are not missing in Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue as well and successfully manage to light up the mood of the game between serious moments or the info-dumping. Although I expected this visual novel to include slice-of-life moments, these were rather rare until getting locked into a route, but at the same time, that means that every scene contributes to the story and no single scenario ever felt unnecessary. That being said, while romance does happen in this game, it’s not present at all in the common route and starts to hint only after getting into a route. In Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue, FC does have bigger importance which is greatly noticeable even in the last portion of this game. Romance is only a side genre while FC takes up much more space in the story.

As aforementioned, team spirit is something that managed to hook me on Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue. I personally think it’s beautiful when you can clearly see the development of the main characters, which is very visible in this game. Every girl starts as being pretty much a beginner when Masaya joins the FC club, yet they are determined to improve and train a lot together until they reach their goal. Also, I have to mention that the fights, especially bigger ones, are really intense and I often held my breath in, hoping for my lovely team to achieve a win, which doesn’t always happen, but it’s crazy when I think about that Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue managed to make me root for them so much as if it directly affected me.

The common route includes six chapters while a girl’s route only contains the last two chapters. The latter ones are, however, lengthy and take much longer to complete than a common route’s chapter. Overall, Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue feels like watching an anime as it always plays the opening before entering a new chapter and a teaser for the next chapter when it ends. The common route pretty much focuses on explaining how FC works and when you get locked into a route, the focus changes a little bit. While FC is still the main theme in this game, the specific girl still gets in the focus and you will see less from the other girls.

In total there are four girls available to romance and every girl is entirely different from each other. It’s also worth it to replay the game for the other girl’s routes as every story is completely different after the branch. Some routes reveal more about the story and others less while you get to know the girls better after romancing them. I feel like you don’t really have an insight of the girls although you’re getting to know them better. This happens due to Masaya seeing them as players and not as women until later in the game. While he spends every day with the girls, he doesn’t really do anything else besides training with them, this also includes private chats.

When it comes to visuals, Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue is one of the most impressive visual novels I’ve played so far. While animations are available here, they weren’t overdone but happened just at the right moment and perfectly support the girl’s emotions. There are a lot of different facial expressions as well as poses available in this game and even if the game zooms in a CG or sprite, the resolution is still sharp. That being said, Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue even supports up to 1440p which is quite rare for visual novels. Additionally, the voice acting and soundtracks are top notch and some tracks are even including vocals for special touching moments which managed to make me tear up at times.

I wouldn’t exactly describe Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue as a romance game, although it does indeed contain romantic. The main genre here, however, is the sport and the purpose of this game is introducing you to the “Flying Circus” world. I found the premise really interesting and you can immediately tell that a lot of thought was put into the story, with everything getting well explained. I never had the feeling that the story was illogical, even though it was about humans flying around in the sky. Additionally, the message in Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue is beautiful and I couldn’t stop rooting for the characters to be successful whatever goal they had in mind. Thus, I can highly recommend Aokana – Four Rhythms Across the Blue when you appreciate a beautiful tale of friendship with a lot of team spirit.

𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐲 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬!
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3 Comments
JEsgarth Dec 15, 2019 @ 9:48am 
Thanks for the link to the patch!
🌸 Dec 3, 2019 @ 2:43pm 
Glad you like the concept! Thanks for reading and your support ρоѕιтяои_ :necroheart::erune:
ρоѕιтяои_ Dec 1, 2019 @ 2:09am 
Soaring through the sky I love the concept. I'm definitely going to read this so thank you for the headsup on the title. Your review was quite informative and wonderfully penned.:DF_notepad: